The International Women’s Club of Moscow will hold its second annual Star Ball on April 20 at the Ritz-Carlton. All proceeds from the black-tie event will go to medical and other health treatment for handicapped children.
“Everything at the ball will be donated except for the food,” said Natalie Volkoff Kabir, the IWC Charities co-chair. “There will be everything that a gala has to offer. We’ll have auctions, dancing and a sit-down dinner, not a buffet.”
About 330 guests are expected, including members of political and diplomatic communities, expat business leaders, dignitaries and celebrities. Guests will be welcomed by Miss Moscow 2009 and Russian Beauty 2009.
The women’s organization has identified seven Russian children, of whom five are from Moscow, for whose treatment the ball will raise funds. This year’s ball is expected to raise 2.5 million rubles ($85,000), mostly from the evening’s live and silent auctions, which will sell artwork, celebrity items, books, porcelain and more.
A call for help from Moscow’s Speransky Children’s Hospital on behalf of a young girl, Adelina, who suffered brutal attacks from a rapist, inspired the organization to organize the first Star Ball in 2009, to raise money to assist her and other children in dire need of help.
With last year’s Star Ball funds, IWC provided Adelina with an electric wheelchair and covered other medical costs. Additionally, the organization’s publicity connected Adelina with further sponsors who paid for her surgical treatments in Germany. Other children helped by the ball received similar levels of assistance.
Children supported by funds from last year’s ball continue to be financially supported by IWC, as needed.
“You can’t start a project of rehabilitation and then cut the person off,” said Dr. Ana Grenfell McDonagh, the IWC Charities honorary chair, echoing the organization’s principles.
The Star Ball will be held at 7 p.m. on April 20 in the Grand Ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Moscow, 3 Tverskaya Ulitsa. Ticket sales continue through April 12. www.starball.ru.
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